Technological sustainable Centre

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A company from Terrassa devoted to technology transfer, in others words, issued an invitation to tender to build their new offices – a technology hub- in a forest away from the city. The site had been chosen specifically. The occupational routines of those working there need a quiet, calm and suggestive ambience. Many of them will spend all day there and they have a dinning hall and bar and a basketball court in order to take time out from the intense bouts of concentration. The group’s philosophy rests on the virtual realm. The company reinvents itself and re-conceives its ideas on a daily basis because research goals are constantly changing. Processes break away from the routine; accordingly, the future architectural project for this knowledge industry is shrouded in an atmosphere of flexibility. Moreover, in an environmentally friendly manner, Terrassa Town Council enforces restrictive measures when it comes to tree felling or altering the natural, rugged topography of the site. Our idea, which won the contact, sought to express an apparently absurd fact for a 7000sq. m. buildings: there is virtually no architecture, firstly reflecting the full flexibility afforded by empty warehouses and secondly, this is due to partitions of those warehouses using highly reflective glass meaning that from outside only the forest is reflected mixing with the actual forest. A kind of extended boat on ancient built terraces scaled to minimise the need for digging and stranded in the middle of the forest. Adaptation to the gauge of the land’s natural profile matched the scaling of the various warehouses linked by the circulation hubs. The width of the bay was the appropriate width for the structure and excellent sunlight. Finally, the only element that could not be in glass – the roof- was returned to its non-built state in order to place the car park on this sloping platform.